Work Adventures

Now that I haven't posted in six months, I guess I should maybe talk about something...

I've mentioned before that I've had jobs like mail sorting and survey administering, but this summer I got a job related to my major. Along with two other ladies, I worked as a field research assistant for a couple of our professors. We drove a huge pickup truck to various locations in the Great Basin Desert (sites were previously selected and marked on GIS maps), using atlas and GPS to find each site. Every week was a different area, and we set up grids of live rodent traps at 3-5 sites every week. We also dug little pitfall traps for insects and did plant composition surveys (lots of sage and desert plants). Each week included three trapping days, so we set up Monday, camped and checked traps daily, and took down everything and headed back to town Thursday. It was a bit of an adjustment to living about half the time fairly primitively, but I came to appreciate the quiet time and all of our wilderness experiences. We caught some neat animals - lots of kangaroo rats (two species), deer mice, grasshopper mice, white-tailed antelope squirrels, wood rats, voles, a dark kangaroo mouse, and we even managed to get a weasel and a gopher snake! That was exciting. Oh, and because there seemed to be a lot of confusion when the girls and I would tell people about our job, we didn't kill or eat the rodents. We simply measured them, marked them by shaving a small patch of fur, and let them go. We actually recaptured a lot of them too (free food, a safe place for the night, and I don't get killed? Sign me up!)

So now it's back into school and I don't work on the research job anymore. I'm actually a teaching assistant for a different professor, although I don't work with a class exactly. You may remember the plant ID team I joined last year; well, the grad student that was the main coach is busy with her thesis this year, so I am now the coach/teacher while she still makes practice quizzes (since I'll still be competing as an undergrad) and shares her vast knowledge with us. It's kind of an overwhelming task: by the time we got meeting schedules arranged, we had only six weeks to learn 200 plants, and I still felt pretty inadequate trying to teach about all of them. It's also a bit scary because we lost some of our top people from last year to graduation. Nevertheless, we went to state competition last week, and as a team we took 2nd place on the plant test, the management test, and the combined scores. Individually, I came in 2nd  on each test (tied with my friend, our management coach on the management exam!) and won 1st for the combined score. It's a great feeling to be recognized for hard work and studying, and I hope we'll all do even better at the national meeting next semester.

In other news, I'm still having fun in my major. One class in particular includes lots of field trips and learning different field techniques. We've electroshocked fish in the local river, used radiotelemetry, tried out GIS, shot dart guns (we're not talking foam darts), and even set up motion-sensing cameras to sample the feral cat population on campus.

For a while I was wondering if law school would be a good option for me after I graduate (there's environmental or natural resource law), but after being in a law lecture series this semester, I'm thinking it's not the best fit. I will most likely go to grad school in a similar field to my current major but may try a different university just to shake things up a bit. It's kind of scary, but I'm not graduating quite yet. At any rate, I'm certain that it will all work out splendidly.

A Curious Thing

Love
When you don't have it, you want it - even if you wish you didn't. I'm currently surrounded by happy, engaged, and in-love couples - even more so than is usual for around here - and I'm trying very hard not to hate them. Many of my once-single friends are in relationships and I'm still very much in single limbo.

It's really just a matter of convincing myself that I really don't care - no matter how secretly I do deep down. If I don't let myself care, I can't really feel the pain of disappointment when I am once again home alone on a weekend.

There's nothing inherently wrong with being single; it gives me a ton of freedom to make my own choices and plans. I can work in the field this summer, camping four days a week, and I can have adventures with friends and focus on schoolwork in the fall. A lot of the time I can convince myself that I like being single... that is until I'm at a movie night with friends, and they're cuddling. Curse my innate desire for closeness!

I don't hate my friends; I don't hate love; and I don't hate myself, but sometimes I struggle to shake the frustration of what seems to be a chronic condition I have. Around here, singleness is sort of looked at as a disease - I mean something must be wrong with you if no one wants you, right? I've heard singles wards described as "leper colonies," and it seems the one I'm in has a high success-rate for recovery. At this point I'm the bitter leper that doesn't get healed yet.

Don't worry, though: I don't feel bitter all the time. Someone I respect told me recently, "I know your turn is coming," mentioning all the people in the ward that have gotten engaged or started dating this semester. I hope it is coming, and that when it does, I'll know how to fit all the pieces of my life together in a satisfactory way because I want an education and to work and support myself, and I don't know how it's all supposed to fit.

The Lord was mindful of the lepers, so I know He hasn't forgotten me. I suppose I just have to wait until it's the right time to be healed.

Spokane like a true...

Plant nerd? Range manager? Cowboy? Yes.

Jan. 28-Feb. 2 was our trip to the big Society for Range Management meeting in Spokane, WA, where the team and I got to exercise our plant knowledge (see my October post) and understanding of range management on the exams. Aside from the tests, we participated in poster and speech contests and ran a booth promoting our university's program (with candy!).
We had a great time bonding, getting to try new restaurants and walking along the river. We also hit the country dance one night where U of Wyoming exceeded our expectations of intoxication. Fortunately our group wasn't the only to opt for sobriety, but some of our girls were still asked to dance by buzzed old range folk.

I should mention the mustaches; there were many, many mustaches on a lot of cowboy-type guys (and one gal), most of which were the kind of mustaches that you wouldn't think actually exist outside of cartoons... yeah. I'm pretty sure Yosemite Sam was based on these people. Anyway, it all made for some great entertainment (don't forget the hats!).

Not to seem too out of place, we all made sure to wear plenty of plaid and denim. Had "best-dressed" been a category at the awards meeting, I'm sure we could have won it with our school "Society for Range Management"-embroidered collared, [business-like] plaid shirts. That's not to say that we didn't place in anything: grad and undergrad students, team and individual, and even a professor of ours earned recognition for various grand jobs done.

It was great to get to know the professors and students better outside of the school setting, and even though the grad students decided to call the rest of us "undies," it was even cool to hang out with them some (most of whom I didn't know existed before the trip). The undergrads formed a pretty tight friend group, and we're working to keep the Spokane spirit alive.

Now, it's back to school. I was fortunate enough to have a pretty light load of making up to do for classes, but the ensuing workload has made our adventures in Washington seem so far in the past. Gone are the days where we met and studied together for hours each week. They'll start again in the fall, though, as we get ready for SRM 2013 in Oklahoma City. Some of our team members will graduate or go on missions before then, but the good times will live on... and for now, I get to keep my plant knowledge toned in the identification class, where we're actually graded.